A recent spate of gun violence across Turkey in recent weeks has drawn attention to a significant rise in personal gun ownership in the country. Recent estimates indicate one gun exists for every two adult men. Last weekend, an attack at a liquor store in İstanbul’s Esenyurt district resulted in the deaths of two individuals. Video footage from the incident spread rapidly across social media, resulting in shock and outrage. In a separate incident shortly thereafter in the Gaziosmanpaşa district, an armed attacker targeting three individuals riding in a taxi missed his mark, hitting the driver instead. On the same day a 22-year old in the southeastern city of Batman was also killed in a gun attack. The recent string of incidents has highlighted rising gun ownership and access to firearms in Turkey, much of which remains unlicensed and outside control of authorities.
938 cases of gun violence recorded so far in 2023
According to the Umut Vakfı (Hope Foundation), a Turkish organization that campaigns for gun control, the first 211 days of 2023 have seen 938 cases of gun violence. Dr. Ayhan Akcan, a member of the organization’s board of directors, said the following regarding the recent increase in gun deaths:
“A gun is owned by one in two adult men, and are present in one of the three houses. At the same time, the use of automatic weapons has increased. In particular, there is an increase in the use of pump-action guns. Guns are used in one out of five cases of violence against women. We see that 4% of the cases are committed with a common pistol.”
Nearly 90% of guns are unlicensed
“The state should take action against gun violence if it is indeed their duty to ensure the safety of life and property in this country. Unfortunately, 8.5 out of every 10 murders in Turkey involve guns. 10 people are killed every day. These are serious numbers. One in every three families is affected. The chance of an average citizen encountering a gun on the street is scarily high. This issue needs to be taken up by the Turkish parliament.”
According to the Stop Homicide of Women Platform (Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu), 12 out of the 22 homicides of women in Turkey that occurred in june 2023 involved a firearm.
100% increase in possession permits since 2018
Numbers from the Gendarmerie General Command (Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı) indicate that the number of firearm possession permits issued in the past five years has increased by over 100% compared to pre-2018 figures. While some 7,630 individuals received these permits in 2018, this number increased to 16,569 in 2021. Over the same time frame, the issuance of carrying permits has also increased significantly.
Children also among perpetrators of gun violence
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According to the Turkish Ministry of Justice, children’s access to guns has also increased. In 2022, ministry data indicates that 3,352 children were involved in cases related to “Firearms, Knives and Other Tools”. Some 455 of these children fell into the 12-14 age group.
Addressing Turkey’s rise in gun violence
Google Trends indicate that search queries for “how to acquire a firearm” have seen a dramatic increase in numerous provinces across Turkey, with the southeastern cities of Adana, Diyarbakir, and Mersin topping the list. Some 85% of murders involve a firearm, and the recent spate of attacks has many contemplating solutions to the rising epidemic.
Dr. Ayhan Akcan noted that while applications for possession permits have decreased in number, the amount of criminal cases involving guns has increased dramatically. “An increase in enforcement has the potential to bring down the number of guns across the country,” said Akcan. “In order to issue possession permits, anger tests, personality tests, and substance abuse tests must be implemented.”
Even if such a test is implemented, however, the vast, vast, number of unregistered weapons remains a systematic issue: “There are something like 4 million registered firearms in our country. The number of unregistered is somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 million. And the issue keeps increasing in severity every year.”
